The Impact Of Time Pressure On Belief Bias In Immediate Inference

In this study, the researcher examine subjects' performance both under two time conditions and under two kinds of task representation methods,attempting to provide new evidence for dual-process theory of reasoning. All the subjects are chosen randomly from sophomore in School of Psychology of Jiang Xi Normal University .Material is eight immediate inference questions constructed by the author of this article. Both experiments use 2×2×2 mixed design. The representation of material and data collection are accomplished by computer .The between subject variable of experiment 1 is the time conditions of answering questions and the two within subject variables are logical validity of reasoning items and the believability of conclusion. The between subject variable of experiment 2 is representation methods of reasoning task and the within subject variables are the same as experiment 1. The result of experiment 1 is, compared with free time condition, under time pressure condition, the logic index of subjects dropped and the belief index increased dramatically. The result of experiment 2 is that the performance of subjects under two kinds of representation methods has no remarkable difference. The result of experiment 1 supports the dual-process theory of reasoning.The conclusions of the study are as follows:first, belief bias exists in immediate inferences, and there are heuristic processes and analytic processes when people engage in immediate inferences. Heuristic processes and analytic processes compete against each other to decide the output of results of immediate inference. When the immediate inference are restricted by time, analytic processes would be repressed and people are inclined to choose heuristic processes.